INTRODUCTION Patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses are obligated to receive lifelong oral anticoagulant therapy to prevent thromboembolic complications; however, this treatment is associated with an increased risk of bleeding. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of major hemorrhagic and thromboembolic complications in patients with mechanical heart valves who received ...

lar contractile function in patients with long-term mitral regurgitation and normal ejection fraction. J Am Coll Cardiol 1993;22:239–250. 21. Rosenhek R, Rader F, Klaar U, Gabriel H, Krejic M, Kalbeck D, Schemper M, Maurer G, Baumgartner H. Outcome of watchful waiting in asymptomatic mitral regurgitation. Circulation 2006;113:2238–2244. 22. Zoghbi WA, Enriquez-Sarano M, Foster E, Grayburn PA, K...

Four cases of acute dysfunction of Starr-Edwards mitral prostheses are recorded. The patients presented with sudden dyspnoea 4 to 18 months after apparently successful mitral valve replacement. The prosthetic valve dysfunction was caused by thrombus on the bare metal cage of the prosthesis. No warning thromboembolic phenomena had been recorded. Urgent replacement of the valve resulted in the su...

Twenty-three patients were evaluated by cardiac catheterization two to 12 months following aortic valve replacement with the porcine xenograft valve. These hemodynamic studies established a mean peak-to-peak systolic gradient across the prosthesis of 23 mm Hg with a range of 6-58 mm Hg. The mean effective orifice area was calculated to be 1.25 cm2. The effective orifice area increased with incr...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), using the Edwards Sapien balloon expandable valve (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, California, USA) has expanded our ability to treat patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis, and become the treatment of the choice in high risk inoperable patients (1,2). Further inroads into its application in subgroup populations, such as patients with a fu...

Backgrounds: Percutaneous transseptal transcatheter mitral valve-in-valve implantation (TMViV) has become an alternative minimally invasive treatment choice for patients with degenerated bioprosthesis and high surgical risk. However, approach is more technically challenging than transapical in TMViV procedures. Objective: The objective of this study was to introduce the experience applying long...

acute fulminant myocarditis is a life-threatening inflammatory disease of the myocardium characterized by the rapid deterioration of the hemodynamic status of the affected individual. with prompt recognition and appropriate management, complete recovery of ventricular function is likely within a few weeks. we introduce a 28-year-old man with acute fulminant myocarditis, who experienced circulat...

introduction: despite advances in cardiac surgery, many patients might still encounter some post-surgical complications and difficulties. to overcome such difficulties, they should receive the required education. in view of the fact that determining the educational needs is the first step in educational planning, the present study aims to determine the educational needs of patients undergoing h...

blunt injury to the chest can affect any one or all components of the chest wall and thoracic cavity. the clinical presentation of patients with blunt chest trauma varies widely and ranges from minor reports of pain to florid shock. traumatic tricuspid valve regurgitation is a rare cardiovascular complication of blunt chest trauma. tricuspid valve regurgitation is usually begotten by disorders ...

The major cause of late mortality and morbidity after prosthetic valve replacement is thromboembolism. The nidus for initiation of thrombus formation has been blood metal interfaces, and a new valve--the St Jude prosthesis--has therefore been developed without any metal components. We have assessed echocardiographically in 27 patients the effects of this valve on left ventricular filling charac...